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A  LABRADOR  DOCTOR.  The  Autobiography  of 
Wilfred  Thomason  Grenfell.     Illustrated. 

LABRADOR  DAYS.  Talei  of  the  bea  Toilers. 
With  frontispiece. 

TALES  OF  THE  LABRADOR.  With  Irontisiaece. 

THE  ADVENTURE  OF  LIFE. 

ADRIFT  ON  AN   ICE-PAN.     Illustrated. 

HOUGHTON   MIFFLIN  COMPANY 
Boston  and  New  York 


ADRIFT  ON  AN  ICE-PAN 


Digitized  by  tlie  Internet  Arcliive 

in  2007  witli  funding  from 

IVIicrosoft  Corporation 


littp://www.arcli  ive.org/details/adriftonicepanOOgreniala 


ADRIFT  ON  AN 
ICE-PAN 

BT 
WILFRED  THOMASON  GpENFELL 

M.D.  (OXON),C.M.G. 

ILLUSTRATED  FROM  PHOTOGRAPHS 
BT  DR. GRENFELL  AND  OTHERS 


BOSTON  AND  NEW  YORK 
HOUGHTON  MIFFLIN  COMPANY 


GOPTRI6HT  igog 

BT  WILFRED  TUOMASON  GRENFELL 
ALL  RIGHTS  RESERVED 

PUBLISHED  JUNE  igOg 
TWENTIETH   IMPRESSION,  MARCH,   igaa 


Printed  in  U.  S.  A. 


CONTENTS 

BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH  Ix 

ADRIFT  ON  AN  ICE-PAN  I 

APPENDIX  5g 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

WILFRED    THOMASON    GRENFELL, 

M.  D.  (OXON),  C.  M.  G.    .     .  Frontispiece 

THE   SETTLEMENT   AT   ST.  ANTHONY  a 

ON  A  JOURNEY  FROM   ST.  ANTHONY  4 

^TRAVELLING  ON  BROKEN  ICE   ...  8 

PART  OF  DR.  GRENFELl's  TEAM       .  la 

DR.  GRENFELL  AND  JACK      .     .     .     .  ao 
WITH  THE  JACKET  MADE  FROM   MOCCASINS 

DOC 3o 


MEMORIAL   TABLET,    ST.  ANTHONY*S 
HOSPITAL,  NEWFOUNDLAND      .      .     54 


BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH 


BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH 

**  Most  Noble  Vice-Chancellor,       , 
AND  You,  EnmENT  Proctors  : 

**  A  citizen  of  Britain  is  before  you, 
once  a  student  in  this  University, 
now  better  known  to  the  people  of 
the  New  World  than  to  oiu*  own. 
This  is  the  man  who  fifteen  years  ago 
went  to  the  coast  of  Labrador,  to 
succor  with  medical  aid  the  sohtary 
fishermen  of  the  northern  sea ;  in 
executing  which  service  he  despised 
the  perils  of  the  ocean,  which  are 
there  most  terrible,  in  order  to  bring 
comfort  and  light  to  the  wretched 
and  sorrowing.  Thus,  up  to  the  mea- 
sure of  human  ability,  he  seems  to  fol- 
low, if  it  is  right  to  say  it  of  any  one. 


BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH 

in  the  footsteps  of  Christ  Himself, 
as  a  truly  Christian  man.  Rightly 
then  we  praise  him  by  whose  praise 
not  he  alone,  but  our  University  also 
is  honored.  I  present  to  you  Wilfred 
Thomason  Grenfell,  that  he  may  be 
admitted  to  the  degree  of  Doctor  in 
Medicine,  honoris  causa." 

Thus  may  be  rendered  the  Latin 
address  when,  in  May,  1907,  for  the 
first  time  in  its  history,  the  Univer- 
sity of  Oxford  conferred  the  honorary 
degree  in  medicine.  With  these  fit- 
ting words  was  presented  a  man 
whose  simple  faith  has  been  the 
motive  pover  of  his  works,  to  whom 
pain  and  weariness  of  flesh  have  called 
no  stay  since  there  was  discourage- 
ment never,  to  whom  personal  dan- 
ger has  counted  as  nothing  since  fear 
is  incomprehensible.  **As  the  Lord 
[  xii  1 


BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH 

wills,  whether  for  wreck  or  service, 
I  am  about  His  business."  On  No- 
vember gth  of  the  precedingyear,the 
King  of  England  gave  one  of  his 
* '  Birthday  Honors  "  to  the  same  man, 
making  him  a  Companion  of  St. 
Michael  and  St.  George  (C.  M.  G.). 
Wilfred  Thomason  Grenfell,  sec- 
ond son  of  the  Rev.  Algernon  Sydney 
GrenfeU  and  Jane  Georgiana  Hutch- 
inson, was  born  on  the  twenty- 
eighth  day  of  February,  eighteen 
hundred  and  sixty-five,  at  Mostyn 
House  School,  Parkgate,  by  Chester, 
England,  of  an  ancestry  which  laid 
a  firm  foundation  for  his  career  and 
in  surroundings  which  fitted  him  for 
it.  On  both  sides  of  his  inheritance 
have  been  exhibited  the  courage, 
patience,  persistence,  and  fighting 

and  teaching  qualities  which  are  ex- 
[xiU] 


BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH 

emplified  in  his  own  abilities  to  com- 
mand, to  administer,  and  to  uplift. 

On  his  father's  side  were  the  Gren- 
villes,  who  made  good  account  of 
themselves  in  such  cause  as  they  ap- 
proved, among  them  Basil  Grenville, 
commander  of  the  Royalist  Cornish 
Army,  killed  at  Lansdown  in  1 643 
in  defence  of  King  Charles. 

•*  Four  wheels  to  Charles's  wain : 
Grenville,  Trevanion,    Slanning,    Godolphin 
slain." 

There  was  also  Sir  Richard  Gren- 
ville, immortalized  by  Tennyson  in 
**The  Revenge,"  and  John  Pascoe 
Grenville,  the  right-hand  man  of 
Admiral  Cochrane,  who  boarded  the 
Spanish  admiral's  ship,  the  Esmer- 
alda, on  the  port  side,  while  Coch- 
rane came  up  on  the  starboard,  when 
together  they  made  short  work  of 


BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH 

the  capture.  Nor  has  the  strain  died 
out,  as  is  demonstrated  in  the  pre- 
sent generation  by  manyof  Dr.Gren- 
fell's  cousins,  among  them  General 
Francis  Wallace  Grenfell,  Lord  Kil- 
vey,  and  by  Dr.  Grenfell  himself  on 
the  Labrador  in  the  fight  against  dis- 
ease and  disaster  and  distress  along 
a  stormy  and  uncharted  coast. 

On  his  mother's  side,  four  of  her 
brothers  were  generals  or  colonels  in 
the  trying  times  of  service  in  India. 
The  eldest  fought  with  distinction 
throughout  the  Indian  Mutiny  and 
in  the  defence  of  Lucknow,  and  an- 
other commanded  the  crack  cavalry 
regiment,  the  **  Guides,"  at  Pesha- 
war, and  fell  fighting  in  one  of  the 
turbulent  North  of  India  wars. 

Of  teachers,  there  was  Dr.  Gren- 
fell's  paternal  grandfather,  the  Rer. 

(xvj 


BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH 

Algernon  Grenfell,  the  second  of 
three  brothers,  house  master  at  Rug- 
by under  Arnold,  and  a  fine  classical 
scholar,  whose  elder  and  younger 
brothers  each  felt  the  ancestral  call 
of  the  sea  and  became  admirals,  with 
brave  records  of  daring  and  success. 

Dr.  Grenfell's  father,  after  a  bril- 
liant career  at  Rugby  School  and  at 
Balliol  College,  Oxford,  became  as- 
sistant master  at  Rep  ton,  and  later, 
when  he  married,  head  master  of 
Mostyn  House  School,  a  position 
which  he  resigned  in  1 882  to  become 
Chaplain  of  the  London  Hospital. 
**He  was  a  man  of  much  learning, 
with  a  keen  interest  in  science,  a  re- 
markable eloquence,  and  a  fervent 
evangeUstic  faith." 

Mostyn  House  School  still  stands, 
enlarged  and  modernized,  in   the 

IxYiJ 


BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH 

charge  of  Dr.  Grenfell's  elder  broth- 
er, and  in  it  his  mother  is  still  the 
real  head  and  controlling  genius. 

Parkgate,  at  one  time  a  seaport 
of  renown,  when  Liverpool  was  still 
unimportant,  and  later  a  seaside 
health  resort  to  which  came  the  fash- 
ion and  beauty  of  England,  had  fall- 
en, through  the  silting  of  the  estuary 
and  the  broadening  of  the  *  *  Sands 
of  Dee,"  to  the  level  of  a  hamlet  in 
the  time  of  Dr.  Grenfell's  boyhood. 
The  broad  stretch  of  seaward  trend- 
ing sand,  with  its  interlacing  rivulets 
of  fresh  and  brackish  water,  made  a 
tempting  though  treacherous  play- 
ground, alluring  alike  in  the  varied 
forms  of  life  it  harbored  and  in  the 
adventure  which  whetted  explora- 
tion. Thither  came  Charles  Kingsley, 
Canon  of  Chester,  who  married  a 

[  xvii  1 


BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH 

Grenfell,  and  who  coupled  his  verse 
with  scientific  study  and  made 
geological  excursions  to  the  river's 
mouth  with  the  then  Master  of 
Mostyn  House  School.  In  these  ex- 
cursions the  youthful  Wilfred  was  a 
participant,  and  therein  he  learned 
some  of  his  first  lessons  in  that  ac- 
curacy of  observation  essential  to  his 
later  life  work. 

Here  in  this  trained,  but  untram- 
meled,  boyhood,  with  an  inherited 
incentive  to  labor  and  an  educated 
thirst  for  knowledge,  away  from  the 
thrall  of  crowded  communities,  close 
to  the  wild  places  of  nature,  with  the 
sea  always  beckoning  and  a  rocking 
boat  as  familiar  as  the  land,  it  is 
small  wonder  that  there  grew  the 
fashioning  of  the  purpose  of  a  man, 
dimly  at  first,  conceived  in  a  home  in 

[  xviii  J 


BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH 

which  all,  both  of  tradition  and  of 
teaching,  bred  faith,  reverence,  and 
the  sense  of  thanksgiving  in  useful- 
ness. 

From  the  school-days  at  Parkgate 
came  the  step  to  Marlborough  Col- 
lege, where  three  years  were  marked 
by  earnest  study,  both  in  books  and 
in  play,  for  the  one  gained  a  scholar- 
ship and  the  other  an  enduring  inter- 
est in  Rugby  football.  Matriculating 
later  at  the  University  of  London, 
Grenfell  entered  the  London  Hospi- 
tal, and  there  laid  not  only  the  foun- 
dation of  his  medical  education,  but 
that  of  his  friendship  with  Sir  Fred- 
erick Treves,  renowned  surgeon  and 
daring  sailor  and  master  mariner  as 
well.  With  plenty  of  work  to  the 
fore,  as  a  hospital  interne,  the  ruhng 

fipirit  still  asserted  itself,  and  the 
[xix] 


BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH 

young  doctor  became  an  inspiration 
among  the  waifs  of  the  teeming  city ; 
he  was  one  of  the  founders  of  the 
great  Lads'  Brigades  which  have  done 
much  good,  and  fostered  more,  in 
the  example  that  they  have  set  for 
allied  activities.  Nor  were  the  needs 
of  his  own  bodilymachine  neglected; 
football,  rowing,  and  the  tennis  court 
kept  him  in  condition,  and  his  ath^ 
letics  served  to  strengthen  his  appeals 
to  the  London  boys  whom  he  enrolled 
in  the  brigades.  He  founded  the  inter- 
hospital  rowing  club  at  Putney  and 
rowed  in  the  first  inter-hospital  race ; 
he  played  on  the  Varsity  football 
team,  and  won  the  "throwing  the 
hammer"  at  the  sports. 

A  couple  of  terms  at  Queen's  Col- 
lege, Oxford,  followed  the  London 
experience,  but  here  the  conditions 

[XX] 


BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH 

were  too  easy  and  luxurious  for  one 
who,  by  both  inheritance  and  train- 
ing, had  within  him  the  incentive  to 
the  strenuous  hfe.  Need  called,  mis- 
ery appealed,  the  message  of  life,  of 
hope,  and  of  salvation  awaited,  and 
the  young  doctor  turned  from  Oxford 
to  the  medical  mission  work  in  which 
his  record  stands  among  the  fore- 
most for  its  efTectiveness  and  for  the 
spirituality  of  its  purpose. 

Seeking  some  way  in  which  he 
could  satisfy  his  medical  aspirations, 
as  well  as  his  desire  for  adventure 
and  for  definite  Christian  work,  he 
appealed  to  Sir  Frederick  Treves,  a 
member  of  the  Council  of  the  Royal 
National  Mission  to  Deep  Sea  Fisher- 
men, who  suggested  his  joining  the 
staff  of  the  mission  and  establishing 
a  medical  mission  to  the  fishermen 
[  ^  1 


BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH 

of  the  North  Sea.  The  conditions  of 
the  hfe  were  onerous,  the  existing 
traffic  in  spirituous  Uquors  and  in  all 
other  demoralizing  influences  had  to 
be  fought  step  by  step,  prejudice  and 
evil  habit  had  to  be  overcome  and  to 
be  replaced  by  better  knowledge  and 
better  desire,  there  was  room  for 
both  fighting  and  teaching,  and 
the  medical  mission  won  its  way. 
**When  you  set  out  to  commend 
your  gospel  to  men  who  don't  want 
it,  there 's  only  one  way  to  go  about 
it,  — to  do  something  for  them  that 
they  '11  be  sure  to  understand.  The 
message  of  love  that  was  '  made  flesh 
and  dwelt  amongst  men 'must  be  re- 
incarnate in  our  lives  if  it  is  to  be 
received  to-day."  Thus  came  about 
the  outfitting  of  the  Albert  hospital- 
ship  to  carry  the  message  and  the 
[  xxU  ] 


BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH 

help,  by  cruising  among  the  fleets  on 
the  fishing-grounds,  and  the  organi- 
zation of  the  Deep  Sea  Mission ;  when 
this  work  was  done, ' '  when  the  fight 
had  gone  out  of  it,"  Dr.  Grenfell 
looked  for  another  field,  for  yet 
another  need,  and  found  it  on  that 
barren  and  inhospitable  coast  the 
Labrador,  whose  only  harvest  field 
is  the  sea. 

Six  hundred  miles  of  almost  bar- 
ren rock  with  outlying  uncharted 
ledges,  —  worn  smooth  by  ice,  else 
still  moro  vessels  would  have  found 
wreckage  there ;  a  scant,  constant 
population  of  hardy  fishermen  and 
their  famihes,  pious  and  God-fear- 
ing, most  of  them,  but  largely  at  the 
mercy  of  the  local  traders,  who  took 
their  pay  in  fish  for  the  bare  neces- 
sities of  hving,  with  a  large  account 

[  xxiii  ] 


BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH 

always  on  the  trader's  side ;  with 
such  medical  aid  and  ministration 
as  came  only  occasionally,  by  the 
infrequent  mail  boat,  and  not  at  ali 
in  the  long  winter  months  when  the 
coast  was  firm  beset  with  ice,  —  to 
such  a  place  came  Dr.  Grenfell  in 
1892  to  cast  in  his  lot  with  its  in- 
habitants, to  live  there  so  long  as 
he  should,  to  die  there  were  it  God's 
wiU. 

As  it  stands  to-day  the  Mission 
to  Deep  Sea  Fishermen,  which  Dr. 
Grenfell  represents,  administers,  and 
animates  on  the  Labrador  coast,  not 
only  brings  hope,  new  courage,  and 
spiritual  comfort  to  an  isolated  peo- 
ple in  a  desolate  land,  but  cares  for 
the  sick  and  injured,  in  its  four 
hospitals  and  dispensary,  provides 
house  visitation  by  means  of  dog- 

[  xxiv  ] 


BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH 

sledge  journeys  covering  hundreds 
of  miles  in  a  year,  teaches  whole- 
some and  righteous  living,  conducts 
cooperative  stores,  provides  for  or- 
phans and  for  families  bereft  of  the 
bread-winners  by  accidents  of  the 
sea,  encourages  thrift,  and  admin- 
isters justice,  and  adds  to  the  wage- 
earning  capacity  and  therefore  food- 
obtaining  power  by  operating  a  saw- 
mill, a  schooner-building  yard,  and 
other  productive  industries. 

To  accomplish  this,  to  make  of  the 
scattered  settlements  a  united  and 
independent  people,  to  safeguard 
their  future  by  such  measures  as  the 
establishment  of  a  Seamen's  Insti- 
tute at  St.  John's,  Newfoundland, 
and  the  insurance  of  communication 
with  the  outside  world,  and  to  raise, 
by  personal  solicitation,  the  money 

[    XXV    1 


BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH 

needed  for  these  enterprises,  rei 
quires  an  unusual  personality.  Faith, 
courage,  insight,  foresight,  the  pow- 
er to  win,  and  the  ability  to  com- 
mand, — all  of  these  and  more  of  like 
quahties  are  embodied  and  portrayed 
in  Dr.  Grenfell. 

Clarence  John  Blakb, 


ADRIFT  ON  AN  ICE-PAN 


ADRIFT  ON  AN  ICE-PAN 

It  was  Easter  Sunday  at  St.  Anthony 
in  the  year  1908,  but  with  us  in 
northern  Newfoundland  still  winter. 
Everything  was  covered  with  snow 
and  ice.  I  was  walking  back  after 
morning  service,  when  a  boy  came 
nmning  over  from  the  hospital  with 
the  news  that  a  large  team  of  dogs 
had  come  from  sixty  miles  to  the 
southward,  to  get  a  doctor  on  a  very 
urgent  case.  It  was  that  of  a  young 
man  on  whom  we  had  operated  about 
a  fortnight  before  for  an  acute  bone 
disease  in  the  thigh.  The  people  had 
allowed  the  wound  to  close,  the  poi^ 
soned  matter  had  accumulated,  and 
we  thought  we  should  have  to  re- 


ADRIFT  ON  AN  ICE-PAN 

move  the  leg.  There  was  obviously, 
therefore,  no  time  to  be  lost.  So, 
having  packed  up  the  necessary  in- 
struments, dressings,  and  drugs,  and 
having  fitted  out  the  dog-sleigh  with 
my  best  dogs,  I  started  at  once,  the 
messengers  following  me  with  their 
team. 

My  team  was  an  especially  good 
one.  On  many  a  long  journey  they 
had  stood  by  me  and  pulled  me  out 
of  difficulties  by  their  sagacity  and 
endurance.  To  a  lover  of  his  dogs,  as 
every  Christian  man  must  be,  each 
one  had  become  almost  as  precious 
as  a  child  to  its  mother.  They  were 
beautiful  beasts:  "Brin,"  the  clever- 
est leader  on  the  coast;  *'Doc," 
a  large,  gentle  beast,  the  backbone 
of  the  team  for  power;  **Spy,"  a 
wiry,  powerful  black  and  white  dog; 


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ADRIFT   ON  AN   ICE-PAN 

*  *  Moody,"  a  lop-eared  black-and-tan, 
in  his  third  season,  a  plodder  that 
never  looked  behind  him;  * 'Watch," 
the  youngster  of  the  team,  long- 
legged  and  speedy,  with  great  liquid 
eyes  and  a  Gordon-setter  coat; ' '  Sue ," 
a  large,  dark  Eskimo,  the  image  of 
a  great  black  wolf,  with  her  sharp- 
pointed  and  perpendicular  ears,  for 
she  *  *  harked  back  "  to  her  wild  an- 
cestry; '  'Jerry,"  a  large  roan-colored 
slut,  the  quickest  of  all  my  dogs  on. 
her  feet,  and  so  affectionate  that  her 
overtures  of  joy  had  often  sent  me 
sprawling  on  my  back;  "Jack,"  a 
jet-black,  gentle-natured  dog,  more 
like  a  retriever,  that  always  ran  next 
the  sledge,  and  never  looked  back  but 
everlastingly  pulled  straight  ahead, 
running  always  with  his  nose  to  the 
ground. 


ADRIFT   ON  AN   ICE-PAN 

It  was  late  in  April,  when  there  is 
always  the  riskof  getting  wet  through 
the  ice,  so  that  I  was  carefully  pre- 
pared with  spare  outfit,  which  in- 
cluded a  change  of  garments,  snow- 
shoes,  rifle,  compass,  axe,  and  oilskin 
overdo thes.  The  messengers  were 
anxious  that  their  team  should  travel 
back  with  mine,  for  they  were  slow 
at  best  and  needed  a  lead.  My  dogs, 
however,  being  a  powerful  team, 
could  not  be  held  back,  and  though 
I  managed  to  wait  twice  for  their 
sleigh,  I  had  reached  a  village  about 
twenty  miles  on  the  journey  before 
nightfall,  and  had  fed  the  dogs,  and 
was  gathering  a  few  people  for  pray- 
ers when  they  caught  me  up. 

During  the  night  the  wind  shifted 
to  the  northeast,  which  brought  in 
fog  and  rain,  softened  the  snow,  and 
[  4  \ 


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ON  A  JOURNEY 


ADRIFT   ON   AN   ICE-PAN 

made  travelling  very  bad,  besides 
heaving  a  heavy  sea  into  the  bay. 
Our  drive  next  morning  would  be 
somewhat  over  forty  miles,  the  first 
ten  miles  on  an  arm  of  the  sea,  on 
salt-water  ice. 

In  order  not  to  be  separated  too 
long  from  my  friends,  I  sent  them 
ahead  two  hours  before  me,  appoint- 
ing a  rendezvous  in  a  log  tilt  that  we 
have  built  in  the  woods  as  a  halfway 
house.  There  is  no  one  living  on  all 
that  long  coast-hne,  and  to  provide 
against  accidents — which  have  hap- 
pened more  than  once  —  we  built 
this  hut  to  keep  dry  clothing,  food, 
and  drugs  in. 

The  first  rain  of  the  year  was  falling 
when  I  started,  and  I  was  obliged  to 
keep  on  what  we  call  the  * '  ballica- 
ters,"  or  ice  barricades,  much  farther 

15  1 


ADRIFT   ON  AN   ICE-PAN 

up  the  bay  than  I  had  expected.  The 
sea  of  the  night  before  had  smashed 
the  ponderous  covering  of  ice  right 
to  the  land  wash.  There  were  great 
gaping  chasms  between  the  enor- 
mous blocks,  which  we  call  pans,  and 
half  a  mile  out  it  was  all  clear  water. 
An  island  three  miles  out  had  pre- 
served a  bridge  of  ice,  however,  and 
by  crossing  a  few  cracks  I  managed 
to  reach  it.  From  the  island  it  was 
four  miles  across  to  a  rocky  promon- 
tory, —  a  course  that  would  be  sev- 
eral miles  shorter  than  going  round 
the  shore.  Here  as  far  as  the  eye  could 
reach  the  ice  seemed  good,  though  it 
was  very  rough.  Obviously,  it  had 
been  smashed  up  by  the  sea  and  then 
packed  in  again  by  the  strong  wind 
from  the  northeast,  and  I  thought  it 
had  frozen  together  solid. 

I  6  1 


ADRIFT   ON  AN  ICE-PAN 

All  went  well  till  I  was  about  a 
quarter  of  a  mile  from  the  landing- 
point.  Then  the  wind  suddenly  fell, 
and  I  noticed  that  I  was  travelling 
over  loose  *'sish,"  which  was  like 
porridge  and  probably  many  feet 
deep.  By  stabbing  down,  I  could 
drive  my  whip-handle  through  the 
thin  coating  of  young  ice  that  was 
floating  on  it.  The  sish  ice  consists 
of  the  tiny  fragments  where  the  large 
pans  have  been  pounding  together 
on  the  heaving  sea,  like  the  stones 
of  Freya's  grinding  mill. 

So  quickly  did  the  wind  now  come 
off  shore,  and  so  quickly  did  the 
packed  **slob,"  relieved  of  the  wind 
pressure,  * '  run  abroad, "  that  already 
I  could  not  see  one  pan  larger  than 
ten  feet  square;  moreover,  the  ice 
was  loosening  so  rapidly  that  I  saw 

I  7  J 


ADRIFT  ON  AN  ICE-PAN 

that  retreat  was  absolutely  impossi- 
ble. Neither  was  there  any  way  to  get 
off  the  little  pan  I  was  surveying 
from. 

There  was  not  a  moment  to  lose. 
I  tore  off  my  oilskins,  threw  myself 
on  my  hands  and  knees  by  the  side 
of  the  komatik  to  give  a  larger  base 
to  hold,  and  shouted  to  my  team  to 
go  ahead  for  the  shore.  Before  we 
had  gone  twenty  yards,  the  dogs  got 
frightened,  hesitated  for  a  moment, 
and  the  komatik  instantly  sank  into 
the  slob.  It  was  necessary  then  for 
the  dogs  to  pull  much  harder,  so  that 
they  now  began  to  sink  in  also. 

Earlier  in  the  season  the  father  of 
the  very  boy  I  was  going  to  operate 
on  had  been  drowned  in  this  same 
way,  his  dogs  tangling  their  traces 
around  him  in  the  slob.  This  flashed 

I  8  J 


ADRIFT   ON  AN   ICE-PAN 

into  my  mind,  and  I  managed  to 
loosen  my  sheath -knife,  scramble 
forward,  find  the  traces  in  the  water, 
and  cut  them,  holding  on  to  the 
leader's  trace  wound  round  my  wrist. 

Being  in  the  water  I  could  see  no 
piece  of  ice  that  would  bear  anything 
up.  But  there  was  as  it  happened 
a  piece  of  snow,  frozen  together  like 
a  large  snowball,  about  twenty-five 
yards  away,  near  w^here  my  leading 
dog,  **  Brin,"  was  wallowing  in  the 
slob.  Upon  this  he  very  shortly 
climbed,  his  long  trace  often  fathoms 
almost  reaching  there  before  he  went 
into  the  water. 

This  dog  has  weird  black  markings 
on  his  face,  giving  him  the  appear- 
ance of  wearing  a  perpetual  grin. 
After  cUmbing  out  on  the  snow  as  if 
it  were  the  most  natural  position  in 
[  9] 


ADRIFT  ON  AN   ICE-PAN 

the  world  he  dehberately  shook  the 
ice  and  water  from  his  long  coat,  and 
then  turned  round  to  look  for  me. 
As  he  sat  perched  up  there  out  of  the 
water  he  seemed  to  be  grinning  with 
satisfaction.  The  other  dogs  wer^ 
hopelessly  bogged.  Indeed,  we  were 
like  flies  in  treacle. 

Gradually,  I  hauled  myself  along 
the  line  that  was  still  tied  to  my  wrist, 
till  without  any  warning  the  dog 
tin-ned  round  and  shpped  out  of  his 
harness,  and  then  once  more  turned 
his  grinning  face  to  where  I  was 
strugghng. 

It  was  impossible  to  make  any  prog- 
ress through  the  sish  ice  by  swim- 
ming, so  I  lay  there  and  thought  all 
would  soon  be  over,  only  wondering 
if  any  one  would  ever  know  how  it 
happened.   There  was  no  particu- 

I   lo  J 


ADRIFT   ON   AN   ICE-PAN 

lar  horror  attached  to  it,  and  in  fact  I 
began  to  feel  drowsy,  as  if  I  could  eas- 
ily go  to  sleep,  when  suddenly  I  saw 
the  trace  of  another  big  dog  that 
had  himself  gone  through  before  he 
reached  the  pan,  and  though  he  was 
close  to  it  was  quite  unable  to  force 
his  way  out.  Along  this  I  hauled  my- 
self, using  him  as  a  bow  anchor,  but 
much  bothered  by  the  other  dogs  as 
I  passed  them,  one  of  which  got 
on  my  shoulder,  pushing  me  farther 
down  into  the  ice.  There  was  only  a 
yard  or  so  more  when  I  had  passed 
my  hving  anchor,  and  soon  I  lay 
with  my  dogs  around  me  on  the  little 
piece  of  slob  ice.  I  had  to  help  them 
on  to  it,  working  them  through  the 
lane  that  I  had  made. 

The  piece  of  ice  we  were  on  was 
so  small  it  was  obvious  we  must  soon 
I  "  J 


ADRIFT   ON   AN   ICE-PAN 

all  be  drowned,  if  we  remained  upon 
it  as  it  drifted  seaward  into  more  open 
water.  If  we  were  to  save  our  lives, 
no  time  was  to  be  lost.  When  I  stood 
up,  I  could  see  about  twenty  yards 
away  a  larger  pan  floating  amidst  the 
sish,  like  a  great  flat  raft,  and  if  we 
could  get  on  to  it  we  should  post- 
pone at  least  for  a  time  the  death  that 
already  seemed  ahnost  inevitable. 
It  was  impossible  to  reach  it  without 
a  life  hne,  as  I  had  already  learned  to 
my  cost,  and  the  next  problem  was 
how  to  get  one  there.  Marvellous  to 
relate,  when  I  had  first  fallen  through, 
after  I  had  cut  the  dogs  adrift  without 
any  hope  left  of  saving  myself,  I  had 
not  let  my  knife  sink,  but  had  fastened 
it  by  two  half  hitches  to  the  back 
of  one  of  the  dogs.  To  my  great  joy 
there  it  was  still,  and  shortly  I  was 


ADRIFT   ON  AN  ICE-PAN 

at  work  cutting  all  the  sealskin  traces 
still  hanging  from  the  dogs'  har- 
nesses, and  splicing  them  together 
into  one  long  line.  These  I  divided 
and  fastened  to  the  backs  of  my  two 
leaders,  tying  the  near  ends  round 
my  two  wrists.  I  then  pointed  out  to 
"Brin"  the  pan  I  wanted  to  reach 
and  tried  my  best  to  make  them  go 
ahead,  giving  them  the  full  length 
of  my  lines  from  two  coils.  My  long 
sealskin  moccasins,  reaching  to  my 
thigh,  were  full  of  ice  and  water. 
These  I  took  off  and  tied  separately 
on  the  dogs'  backs.  My  coat,  hat, 
gloves,  and  overalls  I  had  already 
lost.  At  first,  nothing  would  induce 
the  two  dogs  to  move,  and  though  I 
threw  them  off  the  pan  two  or  three 
times,  they  struggled  back  upon  it, 
which  perhaps  was  only  natural, 
I  i3  1 


ADRIFT   ON  AN   ICE-PAN 

because  as  soon  as  they  fell  through 
they  could  see  nowhere  else  to  make 
for.  To  me,  however,  this  seemed 
to  spell  "the  end."  Fortunately,  I 
had  with  me  a  small  black  spaniel, 
almost  a  featherweight,  with  large 
furry  paws,  called  "Jack,"  who  acts 
as  my  mascot  and  incidentally  as  my 
retriever.  This  at  once  flashed  into 
my  mind,  and  I  felt  I  had  still  one 
more  chance  for  life.  So  I  spoke  to 
him  and  showed  him  the  direction, 
and  then  threw  a  piece  of  ice  toward 
the  desired  goal.  Without  a  moment's 
hesitation  he  made  a  dash  for  it,  and 
to  my  great  joy  got  there  safely,  the 
tough  scale  of  sea  ice  carrying  his 
weight  bravely.  At  once  I  shouted  to 
him  to  *  *  lie  down,"  and  this,  too,  he 
immediately  did,  looking  like  a  little 
black  fuzz  ball  on  the  white  setting. 
[  i4  ] 


ADRIFT   ON  AN   ICE-PAN 

My  leaders  could  now  see  him  seated 

there  on  the  new  piece  of  floe,  and 

when  once  more  I  threw  them  off 

they  understood  what  I  wanted,  and 

fought  their  way  to  where  they  saw 

the  spaniel,  carrying  with  them  the 

line  that  gave  me  the  one  chance  for 

my  hfe.  The  other  dogs  followed 

them,  and  after  painful  struggling, 

all  got  out  again  except  one.  Taking 

all  the  run  that  I  could  get  on  my 

little  pan,  I  made  a  dive,  slithering 

with  the  impetus  along  the  surface 

till  once  more  I  sank  through.  After 

a  long  fight,  however,  I  was  able  to 

haul  myself  by  the  long  traces  on 

to  this  new  pan,  having  taken  care 

beforehand  to  tie  the  harnesses  to 

which  I  was  holding  under  the  dogs* 

bellies,  so  that  they  could  not  slip 

them  off.  But  alas  1  the  pan  I  was  now 
I  i5  1 


ADRIFT   ON   AN   ICE-PAN 

on  was  not  large  enough  to  bear  us 
and  wa^  already  beginning  to  sink, 
so  this  process  had  to  be  repeated 
immediately. 

I  now  realized  that,  though  we 
had  been  working  toward  the  shore, 
we  had  been  losing  ground  all  the 
time,  for  the  off-shore  wind  had  al- 
ready driven  us  a  hundred  yards  far- 
ther out.  But  the  widening  gap  kept 
full  of  the  pounded  ice,  through 
which  no  man  could  possibly  go. 

I  had  decided  I  would  rather  stake 
my  chances  on  a  long  swim  even 
than  perish  by  inches  on  the  floe,  as 
there  was  no  likelihood  whatever  of 
being  seen  and  rescued.  But,  keenly 
though  I  watched,  not  a  streak  even 
of  clear  water  appeared,  the  intermin- 
able sish  rising  from  below  and  filling 
every  gap  as  it  appeared.  We  were 
[  i6] 


ADRIFT   ON   AN   ICE-PAN 

now  resting  on  a  piece  of  ice  about 
ten  by  twelve  feet,  which,  as  I  found 
when  I  came  to  examine  it,  was  not 
ice  at  all,  but  simply  snow-covered 
slob  frozen  into  a  mass,  and  I  feared  it- 
would  very  soon  break  up  in  the  gen- 
eral turmoil  of  the  heavy  sea,  which 
was  increasing  as  the  ice  drove  off 
shore  before  the  wind. 

At  first  we  drifted  in  the  direction 
of  a  rocky  point  on  which  a  heavy 
surf  was  breaking.  Here  I  thought 
once  again  to  swim  ashore.  But  sud- 
denly we  struck  a  rock.  A  large  piece 
broke  off  the  already  small  pan,  and 
what  was  left  swung  round  in  the 
backwash,  and  started  right  out  to 
sea. 

There  was  nothing  for  it  now  but 
to  hope  for  a  rescue.  Alas  I  there  was 
little  possibihty  of  being  seen.  As  I 
I  n  ] 


ADRIFT   ON  AN  ICE-PAN 

have  already  mentioned,  no  one  lives 
around  this  big  bay.  My  only  hope 
was  that  the  other komatik,  knowing 
I  was  alone  and  had  failed  to  keep 
my  tryst,  would  perhaps  come  back 
to  look  for  me.  This,  however,  as  it 
proved,  they  did  not  do. 

The  westerly  wind  was  rising  all 
the  time,  our  coldest  wind  at  this 
time  of  the  year,  coming  as  it  does 
over  the  Gulf  ice.  It  was  tantalizing, 
as  I  stood  with  next  to  nothing  on, 
the  wind  going  through  me  and  every 
stitch  soaked  in  ice-water,  to  see  my 
well-stocked  komatik  some  fifty  yards 
away.  It  was  still  above  water,  with 
food,  hot  tea  in  a  thermos  bottle,  dry 
clothing,  matches,  wood,  and  every- 
thing on  it  for  making  a  fire  to  attract 
attention. 

It  is  easy  to  see  a  dark  object  oa 
I  i8  1 


ADRIFT   ON  AN   ICE-PAN 

the  ice  in  the  daytime,  for  the  gor- 
geous whiteness  shows  off  the  least 
thing.  But  the  tops  of  bushes  and 
large  pieces  of  kelp  have  often  de- 
ceived those  looking  out.  Moreover, 
within  our  memory  nomanhas  been 
thus  adrift  on  the  bay  ice.  The 
chances  were  about  one  in  a  thou- 
sand that  I  should  be  seen  at  all,  and 
if  I  were  seen,  I  should  probably  be 
mistaken  for  some  piece  of  refuse. 

To  keep  from  freezing,  I  cut  off 
my  long  moccasins  down  to  the  feet, 
strung  out  some  Une,  split  the  legs, 
and  made  a  kind  of  jacket,  which  pro- 
tected my  back  from  the  wind  down 
as  far  as  the  waist.  I  have  this  jacket 
still,  and  my  friends  assure  me  it 
would  make  a  good  Sunday  gar- 
ment. 

I  had  not  drifted  more  than  half 
I  19  1 


ADRIFT   ON  AN   ICE-PAN 

a  mile  before  I  saw  my  poor  komatik 
disappear  through  the  ice,  which 
was  every  minute  loosening  up  into 
the  small  pans  that  it  consisted  of, 
and  it  seemed  like  a  friend  gone  and 
one  more  tie  with  home  and  safety 
lost.  To  the  northward,  about  a  mile 
distant,  lay  the  mainland  along  which 
I  had  passed  so  merrily  in  the  morn- 
ing,— only,  it  seemed,  afew  moments 
before. 

By  mid-day  I  had  passed  the  is- 
land to  which  I  had  crossed  on  the 
ice  bridge.  I  could  see  that  the  bridge 
was  gone  now.  If  I  could  reach  the 
island  I  should  only  be  marooned 
and  destined  to  die  of  starvation. 
But  thej^e  was  httle  chance  of  that, 
for  I  was  rapidly  driving  into  the 
ever  widening  bay. 

It  was  scarcely  safe  to  move  on 

I   30   1 


DR.  GRENFELL  AND  JACK 

WITH    THE    JACKET   MADE    FROM    MOCCASINS 


ADRIFT   ON  AN   ICE-PAN 

my  small  ice  raft,  for  fear  of  break- 
ing it.  Yet  I  saw  I  must  have  the 
skins  of  some  of  my  dogs , — of  which 
I  had  eight  on  the  pan,  —  if  I  was  to 
live  the  night  out.  There  was  now 
some  three  to  five  miles  between  me 
and  the  north  side  of  the  bay.  There, 
immense  pans  of  Arctic  ice,  surging 
to  and  fro  on  the  heavy  ground  seas, 
were  thundering  into  the  cliffs  like 
medieval  battering-rams.  It  was  evi- 
dent that,  even  if  seen,  I  could  hope 
for  no  help  from  that  quarter  before 
night.  No  boatcould  live  through  the 
surf. 

Unwinding  the  sealskin  traces  from 
my  waist,  round  which  I  had  wound 
them  to  keep  the  dogs  from  eating 
them,  I  made  a  slip-knot,  passed  it 
over  the  first  dog's  head,  tied  it  round 
xny  foot  close  to  his  neck,  threw  him 
I"  I 


ADRIFT   ON  AN   ICE-PAN 

on  his  back,  and  stabbed  him  in  the 
heart.  Poor  beast  I  I  loved  him  Uke 
a  friend,  —  a  beautiful  dog,  —  but  we 
could  not  all  hope  to  live.  In  fact,  I 
had  no  hope  any  of  us  would,  at  that 
time,  but  it  seemed  better  to  die 
fighting. 

In  spite  of  my  care  the  struggling 
dog  bit  me  rather  badly  in  the  leg. 
I  suppose  my  numb  hands  prevented 
my  holding  his  throat  as  I  could  or- 
dinarily do.  Moreover,  I  must  hold 
the  knife  in  the  wound  to  the  end, 
as  blood  on  the  fur  would  freeze 
solid  and  make  the  skin  useless.  In 
this  way  I  sacrificed  two  more  large 
dogs,  receiving  only  one  more  bite, 
though  I  fully  expected  that  the  pan 
I  was  on  would  break  up  in  the  strug- 
gle. The  other  dogs,  who  were  lick- 
ing their  coats  and  trying  to  get  dry, 
I  "  1 


ADRIFT   ON  AN   ICE-PAN 

apparently  took  no  notice  of  the  fate 
of  their  comrades,  — but  I  was  very 
careful  to  prevent  the  dying  dogs 
crying  out,  for  the  noise  of  fighting 
would  probably  have  been  followed 
by  the  rest  attacking  the  down  dog, 
and  that  was  too  close  to  me  to  be 
pleasant.  A  short  shrift  seemed  to  me 
better  than  a  long  one,  and  I  envied 
the  dead  dogs  whose  troubles  were 
over  so  quickly.  Indeed,  I  came  to 
balance  in  my  mind  whether,  if  once 
I  passed  into  the  open  sea,  it  would 
not  be  better  by  far  to  use  my  faith- 
ful knife  on  myself  than  to  die  by 
inches.  There  seemed  no  hardship 
in  the  thought.  I  seemed  fully  to 
sympathize  with  the  Japanese  viewof 
hara-kiri. 

Working,  however,  saved  me  from 
philosophizing.   By  the  time  I  had 


ADRIFT   ON  AN   ICE-PAN 

skinned  these  dogs,  and  with  my 
knife  and  some  of  the  harness  had 
strung  the  skins  together,  I  was  ten 
miles  on  my  way,  and  it  was  getting 
dark. 

Away  to  the  northward  I  could 
see  a  single  light  in  the  little  village 
where  I  had  slept  the  night  before, 
where  I  had  received  the  kindly  hos- 
pitaUty  of  the  simple  fishermen  in 
whose  comfortable  homes  I  have 
spent  many  a  night.  I  could  not  help 
but  think  of  them  sitting  down  to 
tea,  with  no  idea  that  there  was  any 
one  watching  them,  for  I  had  told 
them  not  to  expect  me  back  for  three 
days. 

Meanwhile  I  had  frayed  out  a  small 

piece  of  rope  into  oakum,  and  mixed 

it  with  fat  from  the  intestines  of  my 

dogs.  Alas,  my  match-box,  which 

I  =«4  J 


ADRIFT  ON  AN   ICE-PAN 

was  always  chained  to  me,  had 
leaked,  and  my  matches  were  in  pulp. 
Had  I  been  able  to  make  a  light,  it 
would  have  looked  so  unearthly  out 
there  on  the  sea  that  I  felt  sure  they 
would  see  me.  But  that  chance  was 
now  cut  off.  However,  I  kept  the 
matches,  hoping  that  I  might  dry 
them  if  I  lived  through  the  night. 
While  working  at  the  dogs,  about 
every  five  minutes  I  would  stand  up 
and  wave  my  hands  toward  the  land. 
I  had  no  flag,  and  I  could  not  spare 
my  shirt,  for,  wet  as  it  was,  it  was 
better  than  nothing  in  that  freezing 
wind,  and,  anyhow,  it  was  already 
nearly  dark. 

Unfortunately ,  the  coves  in  among 

the  chffs  are  so  placed  that  only  for 

a  very  narrow  space  can  the  people 

in  any  house  see  the  sea.  Indeed, 

I  ^5  J 


ADRIFT   ON  AN   ICE-PAN 

most  of  them  cannot  see  it  at  all,  so 
that  I  could  not  in  the  least  expect 
any  one  to  see  me,  even  supposing 
it  had  been  daylight. 

Not  daring  to  take  any  snow  from 
the  surface  of  my  pan  to  break  the 
wind  with,  I  piled  up  the  carcasses  of 
my  dogs.  With  my  skin  rug  I  could 
now  sit  down  without  getting  soaked. 
During  these  hours  I  had  continually 
taken  off  all  my  clothes,  wrung  them 
out,  swung  them  one  by  one  in  the 
wind,  and  put  on  first  one  and  then 
the  other  inside,  hoping  that  what 
heat  there  was  in  my  body  would  thus 
serve  to  dry  them.  In  this  I  had  been 
fairly  successful. 

My  feet  gave  me  most  trouble,  for 
they  immediately  got  wet  again  be- 
cause my  thin  moccasins  were  easily 
soaked  through  on  the  snow.  I  sud- 

l  a6  ] 


ADRIFT  ON  AN   ICE-PAN 

denly  thought  of  the  way  in  which 
the  Lapps  who  tend  our  reindeer 
manage  for  dry  socks.  They  carry 
grass  with  them,  which  they  ravel 
up  and  pad  into  their  shoes.  Into 
this  they  put  their  feet,  and  then  pack 
the  rest  with  more  grass,  tying  up 
the  top  with  a  binder.  The  ropes  of 
the  harness  for  our  dogs  are  carefully 
sewed  all  over  with  two  layers  of 
flannel  in  order  to  make  them  soft 
against  the  dogs'  sides.  So,  as  soon 
as  I  could  sit  down,  I  started  with  my 
trusty  knife  to  rip  up  the  flannel. 
Though  my  fingers  were  more  or  less 
frozen,  I  was  able  also  to  ravel  out  the 
rope,  put  it  into  my  shoes,  and  use 
my  wet  socks  inside  my  knicker- 
bockers, where,  though  damp,  they 
served  to  break  the  wind.  Then, 
tying  the  narrow  strips  of  flannel  to- 

l:»7  J 


ADRIFT   ON  AN   ICE-PAN 

gether,  I  bound  up  the  top  of  the 
moccasins,  Lapp-fashion,  and  car- 
ried the  bandage  on  up  over  my  knee, 
making  a  ragged  though  most  excel- 
lent puttee. 

As  to  the  garments  I  wore,  I  had 
opened  recently  a  box  of  football 
clothes  I  had  not  seen  for  twenty 
years.  I  had  found  my  old  Oxford 
University  football  running  shorts 
and  a  pair  of  Richmond  Football 
Club  red,  yellow,  and  black  stockings, 
exactly  as  I  wore  them  twenty  years 
ago.  These  with  a  flannel  shirt  and 
sweater  vest  were  now  all  I  had  left. 
Coat,  hat,  gloves,  oilskins,  every- 
thing else,  were  gone,  and  I  stood 
there  in  that  odd  costume,  exactly  as 
I  stood  twenty  years  ago  on  a  football 
field,  reminding  me  of  the  little  girl 
of  a  friend,  who,  when  told  she  was 
I  "8  1 


ADRIFT   ON  AN   ICE-PAN 

dying,  asked  to  be  dressed  in  her 
Sunday  frock  to  go  to  heaven  in.  My 
costume,  being  very  Ught,  dried  all 
the  quicker,  until  afternoon.  Then 
nothing  would  dry  anymore,  every- 
thing freezing  stiff.  It  had  been  an 
ideal  costume  to  struggle  through 
the  slob  ice.  I  really  believe  the  con- 
ventional garments  missionaries  are 
supposed  to  affect  would  have  been 
fatal. 

My  occupation  till  what  seemed 
like  midnight  was  unravelling  rope, 
and  with  this  I  padded  out  my  knick- 
ers inside,  and  my  shirt  as  well, 
though  it  was  a  clumsy  job,  for  I 
could  not  see  what  I  was  doing.  Now, 
getting  my  largest  dog.  Doc,  as  big 
as  a  wolf  and  weighing  ninety-two 
pounds,  I  made  him  he  down,  so  that 
I  could  cuddle  round  hinL  I  then 
1  >di 


ADRIFT   ON  AN   ICE-PAN 

wrapped  the  three  skins  around  me, 

arranging  them  so  that  I  could  he  on 

one  edge,  while  the  other  came  just 

over  my  shoulders  and  head. 

My  own  breath  collecting  inside 

the  newly  flayed  skin  must  have  had 

a  soporific  effect,  for  I  was  soon  fast 

asleep.    One  hand  I  had  kept  warm 

against  the  curled  up  dog,  but  the 

other,  being  gloveless,  had  frozen, 

and  I  suddenly   awoke,    shivering 

enough,  I  thought,    to   break   my 

fragile  pan.  What  I  took  at  first  to 

be  the  sun  was  just  rising,  but  I  soon 

found  it  was  the  moon,  and  then  I 

knew  it  was  about  half-past  twelve. 

The  dog  was  having  an  excellent 

time.  He  hadn't  been  cuddled  so 

warm  all  winter,  and  he  resented  my 

moving  with  low  growls  till  he  found 

it  wasn't  another  dog. 
I  30] 


DOC 


ADRIFT    ON   AN    ICE-PAN 

The  wind  was  steadily  driving 
me  now  toward  the  open  sea,  and  I 
could  expect,  short  of  a  miracle,  no- 
thing but  death  out  there.  Some- 
how, one  scarcely  felt  justified  in 
praying  for  a  miracle.  But  we  have 
learned  down  here  to  pray  for  things 
we  want,  and,  anyhow,  just  at  that 
moment  the  miracle  occurred.  The 
wind  fell  off  suddenly,  and  came  with 
a  light  air  from  the  southward,  and 
then  dropped  stark  calm.  The  ice 
was  now  *'all  abroad,"  which  I  was 
sorry  for,  for  there  was  a  big  safe 
pan  not  twenty  yards  away  from  me. 
If  I  could  have  got  on  that,  I  might 
have  killed  my  other  dogs  when  the 
time  came,  and  with  their  coats  I 
could  hope  to  hold  out  for  two  or 
three  days  more,  and  with  the  food 
and  drink  their  bodies  would  offer 
(  3i  1 


ADRIFT   ON   AN   ICE-PAN 

me  need  not  at  least  die  of  hunger 
or  thirst.  To  tell  the  truth,  they  were 
so  big  and  strong  I  was  half  afraid  to 
tackle  them  with  only  a  sheath-knife 
on  my  small  and  unstable  raft. 

But  it  was  now  freezing  hard.  I 
knew  the  calm  water  between  us 
would  form  into  cakes,  and  I  had 
to  recognize  that  the  chance  of  get- 
ting near  enough  to  escape  on  to  it 
was  gone.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  the 
whole  bay  froze  sohd  again  I  had  yet 
another  possible  chance.  For  my  pan 
would  hold  together  longer  and  I 
should  be  opposite  another  village, 
called  Goose  Gove,  at  daylight,  and 
might  possibly  be  seen  from  there. 
I  knew  that  the  komatiks  there  would 
be  starting  at  daybreak  over  the  hills 
for  a  parade  of  Orangemen  about 
twenty  miles  away.  Possibly,  there- 

I    32    ] 


ADRIFT   ON  AN   ICE-PAN 

fore,  I  might  be  seen  as  they  cUmbed 
the  hills.  So  I  lay  down,  and  went  to 
sleep  again. 

It  seems  impossible  to  say  how 
long  one  sleeps,  but  I  woke  with  a 
sudden  thought  in  my  mind  that  I 
must  have  a  flag ;  but  again  I  had  no 
pole  and  no  flag.  However,  I  set  to 
work  in  the  dark  to  disarticulate  the 
legs  of  my  dead  dogs,  which  were 
now  frozen  stiff,  and  which  were  all 
that  offered  a  chance  of  carrying  any- 
thing like  a  distress  signal.  Cold  as 
it  was,  I  determined  to  sacrifice  my 
shirt  for  that  purpose  with  the  first 
streak  of  daylight. 

It  took  a  long  time  in  the  dark 
to  get  the  legs  off,  and  when  I  had 
patiently  marled  them  together  with 
old  harness  rope  and  the  remains  of 
the  skin  traces,  it  was  the  heaviest 
[  33  1 


ADRIFT   ON   AN   ICE-PAN 

and  crookedest  flag-pole  it  has  ever 
been  my  lot  to  see.  Ihad  had  no  food 
from  six  o'clock  the  morning  before, 
when  I  had  eaten  porridge  and  bread 
and  butter.  I  had,  however,  a  rub- 
ber band  which  I  had  been  wearing 
instead  of  one  of  my  garters,  and  I 
chewed  that  for  twenty-four  hours. 
It  saved  me  from  thirst  and  hunger, 
oddly  enough.  It  was  not  possible 
to  get  a  drink  from  my  pan,  for  it 
was  far  too  salty.  But  anyhow  that 
thought  did  not  distress  me  much, 
for  as  from  time  to  time  I  heard  the 
cracking  and  grinding  of  the  newly 
formed  slob,  it  seemed  that  my  de- 
voted boat  must  inevitably  soon  go 
to  pieces. 

At  last  the  sun  rose,  and  the  time 
came  for  the  sacrifice  of  my  shirt.  So 
I  stripped,  and,  much  to  my  surprise, 
[  34] 


ADRIFT   ON  AN   ICE-PAN 

found  it  not  half  so  cold  as  I  had  an- 
ticipated. I  now  re-formed  my  dog- 
skins with  the  raw  side  out,  so  that 
they  made  a  kind  of  coat  quite  rival- 
ling Joseph's.  But,  with  the  rising 
of  the  sun,  the  frost  came  out  of  the 
joints  of  my  dogs'  legs,  and  the  fric- 
tion caused  by  waving  it  made  my 
flag-pole  almost  tie  itself  in  knots. 
Still,  I  could  raise  it  three  or  four  feet 
above  my  head,  which  was  very  im- 
portant. 

Now,  however,  I  found  that  in- 
stead of  being  as  far  out  at  sea  as  I 
had  reckoned,  I  had  drifted  back  in  a 
northwesterly  direction,  and  was  off 
some  cliffs  known  as  Ireland  Head. 
Near  these  there  was  a  little  village 
looking  seaward,  whence  I  should 
certainly  have  been  seen.  But,  as  I  had 
myself,  earher  in  the  winter,  been 
f  35  1 


ADRIFT   ON  AN  ICE-PAN 

night -bound  at  this  place,  I  had 
learnt  there  was  not  a  single  soul  Kv- 
ing  there  at  all  this  winter.  The  peo- 
ple had  all,  as  usual,  migrated  to  the 
winter  houses  up  the  bay,  where  they 
get  together  for  schoohng  and  social 
purposes. 

I  soon  found  it  was  impossible  to 
keep  waving  so  heavy  a  flag  all  the 
time,  and  yet  I  dared  not  sit  down, 
for  that  might  be  the  exact  moment 
some  one  would  be  in  a  position  to 
see  me  from  the  hills  •  The  only  thing 
in  my  mind  was  how  long  I  could 
stand  up  and  how  long  go  on  waving 
that  pole  at  the  cliffs.  Once  or  twice 
I  thought  I  saw  men  against  their 
snowy  faces,  which,  I  judged,  were 
about  five  and  a  half  miles  from  me, 
but  they  were  only  trees.  Once,  also, 
I  thought  I  saw  a  boat  approaching. 

I  36  J 


ADRIFT   ON  AN   ICE-PAN 

A  glittering  object  kept  appearing 
and  disappearing  on  the  water,  but 
it  was  only  a  small  piece  of  ice  spar- 
kling in  the  sun  as  it  rose  on  the  sur- 
face. I  think  that  the  rocking  of  my 
cradle  up  and  down  on  the  waves  had 
helped  me  to  sleep,  for  I  felt  as  well 
as  ever  I  did  in  my  life ;  and  with  the 
hope  of  a  long  sunny  day,  I  felt  sure 
I  was  good  to  last  another  twenty- 
four  hours, — if  my  boat  would  hold 
out  and  not  rot  under  the  sun's  rays. 
Each  time  I  sat  down  to  rest, my  big 
dog  **Doc"  came  and  kissed  my  face 
and  then  walked  to  the  edge  of  the 
ice-pan,  returning  again  to  where  I 
was  huddled  up,  as  if  to  say,  *'Why 
don't  you  come  along?  Surely  it  is 
time  to  start."  The  other  dogs  also 
were  now  moving  about  very  rest- 
lessly, occasionally  trying  to  satisfy 
I  37  1 


ADRIFT   ON  AN   ICE-PAN 

their  hunger  by  gnawing  at  the  dead 
bodies  of  their  brothers. 

I  determined,  at  mid-day,  to  kill  a 
big  Eskimo  dog  and  drink  his  blood, 
as  I  had  read  only  a  few  days  before 
in  * '  Farthest  North  "  of  Dr.  Nansen's 
doing, — that  is,  if  Isurvived  the  bat- 
tle with  him .  I  could  not  help  feeUng, 
even  then,  my  ludicrous  position, 
and  I  thought,  if  ever  I  got  ashore 
again,  I  should  have  to  laugh  at  my- 
self standing  hour  after  hour  waving 
my  shirt  at  those  lofty  cliffs,  which 
seemed  to  assume  a  kind  of  sardonic 
grin,  so  that  I  could  almost  imagine 
they  were  laughing  at  me.  At  times 
I  could  not  help  thinking  of  the  good 
breakfast  that  my  colleagues  were  en- 
joying at  the  back  of  those  same  cliffs, 
and  of  the  snug  fire  and  the  comfort- 
able room  which  we  call  our  study. 

(  38  1 


ADRIFT   ON  AN   ICE-PAN 

I  can  honestly  say  that  from  first 
to  last  not  a  single  sensation  of  fear 
entered  my  mind,  even  when  I  was 
struggling  in  the  slob  ice.  Somehow 
it  did  not  seem  unnatural ;  I  had  been 
through  the  ice  half  a  dozen  times 
before.  For  the  most  part  I  felt  very 
sleepy,  and  the  idea  was  then  very 
strong  in  my  mind  that  I  should  soon 
reach  the  solution  of  the  mysteries 
that  I  had  been  preaching  about  for 
so  many  years. 

Only  the  previous  night  (Easter 
Sunday)  at  prayers  in  the  cottage,  we 
had  been  discussing  the  fact  that  the 
soul  was  entirely  separate  from  the 
body,  that  Christ's  idea  of  the  body 
as  the  temple  in  which  the  soul 
dwells  is  so  amply  borne  out  by 
modern  science.  We  had  talked  of 
thoughts  from  that  admirable  book, 
[  39  ] 


ADRIFT   ON   AN   ICE-PAN 

'*  Brain  and  Personality,"  by  Dr. 
Thompson  of  New  York,  and  also 
of  the  same  subject  in  the  light  of  a 
recent  operation  performed  at  the 
Johns  Hopkins  Hospital  by  Dr.  Har- 
vey Gushing.  The  doctor  had  re- 
moved from  a  man's  brain  two  large 
cystic  tumors  without  giving  the 
man  an  anaesthetic,  and  the  patient 
had  kept  up  a  running  conversation 
with  him  all  the  while  the  doctor's 
fingers  were  working  in  his  brain. 
It  had  seemed  such  a  striking  proof 
that  ourselves  and  our  bodies  are 
two  absolutely  different  things. 

Our  eternal  hfe  has  always  been 
with  me  a  matter  of  faith.  It  seems 
to  me  one  of  those  problems  that 
must  always  be  a  mystery  to  know- 
ledge. But  my  own  faith  in  this  mat- 
ter had  been  so  untroubled  that  it 
[  4o  J 


ADRIFT   ON  AN  ICE-PAN 

seemed  now  almost  natural  to  be 
leaving  through  this  portal  of  death 
from  an  ice-pan.  In  many  ways,  also, 
I  could  see  how  a  death  of  this  kind 
might  be  of  value  to  the  particular 
work  that  I  am  engaged  in.  Except 
for  my  friends,  I  had  nothing  I  could 
think  of  to  regret  whatever.  Cer- 
tainly, I  should  like  to  have  told  them 
the  story.  But  then  one  does  not  carry 
folios  of  paper  in  running  shorts 
which  have  no  pockets,  and  all  my 
writing  gear  had  gone  by  the  board 
with  the  komatik. 

I  could  still  see  a  testimonial  to  my- 
self some  distance  away  in  my  khaki 
overalls,  which  I  had  left  on  another 
pan  in  the  struggle  of  the  night  be- 
fore. They  seemed  a  kind  of  com- 
pany, and  would  possibly  be  picked 
up  and  suggest  the  true  story.  Run- 
[4i  1 


ADRIFT   ON  AN   iCE-PAN 

ning  through  my  head  all  the  time, 
quite  unbidden,  were  the  words  of 
the  old  hymn :  — 

* '  My  God,  my  Father,  while  I  stray 
Far  from  my  home  on  life's  dark  way. 
Oh,  teach  me  from  my  heart  to  say, 
Thy  will  be  done  1 " 

It  is  a  hymn  we  hardly  ever  sing 
out  here,  and  it  was  an  unconscious 
memory  of  my  boyhood  days. 

It  was  a  perfect  morning,  — a  co- 
balt sky,  an  ultramarine  sea,  a  golden 
sun,  an  almost  wasteful  extravagance 
of  crimson  over  hills  of  purest  snow, 
which  caught  a  reflected  glow  from 
rock  and  crag.  Between  me  and  the 
hills  lay  miles  of  rough  ice  and  long 
veins  of  thin  black  slob  that  had 
formed  during  the  night.  For  the 
foreground  there  was  my  poor,  grue- 
some pan,  bobbing  up  and  down  on 

I  4a  1 


ADRIFT  ON  AN  ICE-PAN 

the  edge  of  the  open  sea,  stained  with 
blood,  and  Uttered  with  carcasses  and 
debris.  It  was  smaller  than  last  night, 
and  I  noticed  also  that  the  new  ice 
from  the  water  melted  under  the 
dogs'  bodies  had  been  formed  at  the 
expense  of  its  thickness.  Five  dogs, 
myself  in  colored  football  costume, 
and  a  bloody  dogskin  cloak,  with  a 
gay  flannel  shirt  on  a  pole  of  frozen 
dogs'  legs,  completed  the  picture. 
The  sun  was  almost  hot  by  now,  and 
I  was  conscious  of  a  surplus  of  heat 
in  my  skin  coat.  I  began  to  look  long- 
ingly at  one  of  my  remaining  dogs, 
for  an  appetite  will  rise  even  on  an 
ice-pan,  and  that  made  me  think  of 
fire.  So  once  again  I  inspected  my 
matches.  Alas  1  the  heads  were  in 
paste,  all  but  three  or  four  blue-top 
wax  ones. 

[43] 


ADRIFT  ON  AN   ICE-PAN 

These  I  now  laid  out  to  dry,  while 
I  searched  about  on  my  snow-pan  to 
see  if  I  could  get  a  piece  of  trans- 
parent ice  to  make  a  burning-glass. 
For  I  was  pretty  sure  that  with  all 
the  unravelled  tow  I  had  stuffed  into 
my  leggings,  and  with  the  fat  of  my 
dogs,  I  could  make  smoke  enough 
to  be  seen  if  only  I  could  get  a  light. 
I  had  found  a  piece  which  I  thought 
would  do,  and  had  gone  back  to  wave 
miy  flag,  which  I  did  every  two  min- 
utes, when  I  suddenly  thought  I  saw 
again  the  glitter  of  an  oar.  It  did  not 
seem  possible,  however,  for  it  must 
be  remembered  it  was  not  water 
which  lay  between  me  and  the  land, 
but  slob  ice,  which  a  mile  or  two  in- 
side me  was  very  heavy.  Even  if  peo- 
ple had  seen  me,  I  did  not  think  they 
could  get  through,  though  I  knew 
I  44  J 


ADRIFT   ON  AN   ICE-PAN 

that  the  whole  shore  would  then 
be  trying.  Moreover,  there  was  no 
smoke  rising  on  the  land  to  give  me 
hope  that  I  had  been  seen.  There 
had  been  no  gun-flashes  in  the  night, 
and  I  felt  sure  that,  had  any  one  seen 
me,  there  would  have  been  a  bonfire 
on  every  hill  to  encourage  me  to 
keep  going. 

So  I  gave  it  up,  and  went  on  with 
my  work.  But  the  next  time  I  went 
back  to  my  flag,  the  glitter  seemed 
very  distinct,  and  though  it  kept  dis- 
appearing as  it  rose  and  fell  on  the 
surface,  I  kept  my  eyes  strained  upon 
it,  for  my  dark  spectacles  had  been 
lost,  and  I  was  partly  snowblind. 

I  waved  my  flag  as  high  as  I  could 

raise  it,  broadside  on.  At  last,  beside 

the  glint  of  the  white  oar,  I  made  out 

the  black  streak  of  the  hull.  I  knew 

145  1 


ADRIFT   ON  AN   ICE-PAN 

that,  if  the  pan  held  on  for  another 
hour,  I  should  be  all  right. 

With  that  strange  perversity  of 
the  human  intellect,  the  first  thing 
I  thought  of  was  what  trophies  I 
could  carry  with  my  luggage  from 
the  pan,  and  I  pictured  the  dog-bone 
flagstaff  adorning  my  study.  (The 
dogs  actually  ate  it  afterwards.)  I 
thought  of  preserving  my  ragged 
puttees  with  our  collection  of  curios- 
ities. Host  no  time  now  at  the  burn- 
ing-glass. My  whole  mind  was  de- 
voted to  making  sure  I  should  be 
seen,  and  I  moved  about  as  much  as 
I  dared  on  the  raft,  waving  my  sorry 
token  aloft. 

At  last  there  could  be  no  doubt 
about  it :  the  boat  was  getting  nearer 
and  nearer.  I  could  see  that  my  re* 
cuers  were  frantically  waving,  andt 

[  46  ] 


ADRIFT  ON  AN   ICE-PAN 

when  they  came  within  shouting  dis- 
tance, I  heard  some  one  cry  out, 
*  *  Don't  get  excited.  Keep  on  the  pan 
where  you  are . ' '  They  were  infinitely 
more  excited  than  I.  Already  to  me 
it  seemed  just  as  natural  now  to  be 
saved  as,  half  an  hour  before,  it  had 
seemed  inevitable  I  should  be  lost, 
and  had  my  rescuers  only  known,  as 
I  did,  the  sensation  of  a  bath  in  that 
ice  when  you  could  not  dry  yourself 
afterwards,  they  need  not  have  ex- 
pected me  to  follow  the  example  of 
the  apostle  Peter  and  throw  myself 
into  the  water. 

As  the  man  in  the  bow  leaped 
from  the  boat  on  to  my  ice  raft  and 
grasped  both  my  hands  in  his,  not  a 
word  was  uttered.  I  could  see  in  his 
face  the  strong  emotions  he  was  try- 
ing hard  to  force  back,  though  in 
[47  1 


ADRIFT   ON  AN  ICE-PAN 

spite  of  himself  tears  trickled  down 
his  cheeks.  It  was  the  same  with  each 
of  the  others  of  my  rescuers,  nor  was 
there  any  reason  to  be  ashamed  of 
them.  These  were  not  the  emblems 
of  weak  sentimentality,  but  the  evi- 
dences of  the  realization  of  the  deep- 
est and  noblest  emotion  of  which  the 
human  heart  is  capable,  the  vision 
that  God  has  use  for  us  his  creatures, 
the  sense  of  that  supreme  joy  of  the 
Christ,  —  the  joy  of  unselfish  service. 
After  the  hand-shake  and  swallow- 
ing a  cup  of  warm  tea  that  had  been 
thoughtfully  packed  in  a  bottle,  we 
hoisted  in  my  remaining  dogs  and 
started  for  home.  To  drive  the  boat 
home  there  were  not  only  five  New- 
foundland fishermen  at  the  oars,  but 
five  men  with  Newfoundland  muscles 
ui  their  backs,  and  five  as  brave  hearts 
i  48  ] 


ADRIFT   ON  AN   ICE-PAN 

as  ever  beat  in  the  bodies  of  human 
beings. 

So,  slowly  but  steadily,  we  forged 
through  to  the  shore,  now  jumping 
out  on  to  larger  pans  and  forcing 
them  apart  with  the  oars,  now  haul- 
ing the  boat  out  and  dragging  her 
over,  when  the  jam  of  ice  packed 
tightly  in  by  the  rising  wind  was  im- 
possible to  get  through  otherwise. 

My  first  question,  when  at  last  we 
found  our  tongues,  was,  "How  ever 
did  you  happen  to  be  out  in  the  boat 
in  this  ice?"  To  my  astonishment 
they  told  me  that  the  previous  night 
four  men  had  been  away  on  a  long 
headland  cutting  out  some  dead  harp 
seals  that  they  had  killed  in  the  fall  and 
left  to  freeze  up  in  a  rough  wooden 
store  they  had  built  there,  and  that  as 
they  were  leaving  for  home,  my  pan 

I  49  1 


ADRIFT   ON  AN   ICE-PAN 

of  ice  had  drifted  out  clear  of  Hare 
Island,  and  one  of  them,  with  his 
keen  fisherman's  eyes,  had  seen 
something  unusual.  They  at  once  re- 
turned to  their  village,  saying  there 
was  something  alive  drifting  out  to 
sea  on  the  floe  ice.  But  their  report 
had  been  discredited,  for  the  people 
thought  that  it  could  be  only  the  top 
of  some  tree. 

All  the  time  I  had  been  driving 
along  I  knew  that  there  was  one  man 
on  that  coast  who  had  a  good  spy- 
glass. He  tells  me  he  instantly  got  up 
in  the  midst  of  his  supper,  on  hear- 
ing the  news,  and  hurried  over  the 
cliffs  to  the  lookout,  carrying  his 
trusty  spy-glass  with  him.  Immedi- 
ately, dark  as  it  was,  he  saw  that 
without  any  doubt  there  was  a  man 
out  on  the  ice.  Indeed,  he  saw  me 

[  5o  ] 


ADRIFT   ON  AN   ICE-PAN 

wave  my  hands  every  now  and  again 
towards  the  shore.  By  a  very  easy 
process  of  reasoning  on  so  uninhab- 
ited a  shore,  he  at  once  knew  who  it 
was,  though  some  of  the  men  argued 
that  it  must  be  some  one  else.  Little 
had  I  thought,  as  night  was  closing 
in,  that  away  on  that  snowy  hiUtop 
lay  a  man  with  a  telescope  patiently 
searching  those  miles  of  ice  for  me. 
Hastily  they  rushed  back  to  the  vil- 
lage and  at  once  went  down  to  try  to 
launch  a  boat,  but  that  proved  to  be 
impossible.  Miles  of  ice  lay  between 
them  and  me,  the  heavy  sea  was  hurl- 
ing great  blocks  on  the  landwash, 
and  night  was  already  falling,  the 
wind  blowing  hard  on  shore. 

The  whole  village  was  aroused, 
and  messengers  were  despatched  at 

once  along  the  coast,  and  lookouts 
[6i  ] 


ADRIFT   ON   AN   ICE-PAN 

told  off  to  all  the  favorable  points, 
so  that  while  I  considered  myself  a 
laughing-stock,  bowing  with  my  flag 
to  those  unresponsive  cliffs,  there 
were  really  many  eyes  watching  me. 
One  man  told  me  that  with  his  glass 
he  distinctly  saw  me  waving  the  shirt 
flag.  There  was  little  slumber  that 
night  in  the  villages,  and  even  the 
men  told  me  there  were  few  dry 
eyes,  as  they  thought  of  the  impossi- 
bility of  saving  me  from  perishing. 
We  are  not  given  to  weeping  over- 
much on  this  shore,  but  there  are 
tears  that  do  a  man  honor. 

Before  daybreak  this  fine  volun- 
teer crew  had  been  gotten  together. 
The  boat,  with  such  a  force  behind 
it  of  will  power,  would,  I  believe, 
have  gone  through  anything.  And, 
after    seeing    the    heavy    breakers 

I  53   1 


ADRIFT  ON  AN   ICE-PAN 

through  which  we  were  guided, 
loaded  with  their  heavy  ice  battering- 
rams,  when  at  last  we  ran  through 
the  harbor-mouth  with  the  boat  on 
our  return,  I  knew  well  what  wives 
and  children  had  been  thinking  of 
when  they  saw  their  loved  ones  put 
out.  Only  two  years  ago  I  remember 
a  fisherman's  wife  watching  her  hus- 
band and  three  sons  take  out  a  boat 
to  bring  in  a  stranger  that  was  show- 
ing flags  for  a  pilot.  But  the  boat  and 
its  occupants  have  not  yet  come 
back. 

Every  soiil  in  the  village  was  on 
the  beach  as  we  neared  the  shore. 
Every  soul  was  waiting  to  shake 
hands  when  I  landed.  Even  with  the 
grip  that  one  after  another  gave  me, 
some  no  longer  trying  to  keep  back 
the  tears,  I  did  not  find  out  my  hands 
I  53  ] 


ADRIFT  ON  AN  ICE-PAN 
were  frost-burnt,  — a  fact  I  have  not 
been  slow  to  appreciate  since,  how- 
ever. I  must  have  been  a  weird  sight 
as  I  stepped  ashore,  tied  up  in  rags, 
stuffed  out  with  oakum,  wrapped  in 
the  bloody  skins  of  dogs,  with  no 
hat,  coat,  or  gloves  besides,  and  only 
a  pair  of  short  knickers.  It  must  have 
seemed  to  some  as  if  it  were  the  old 
man  of  the  sea  coming  ashore. 

But  no  time  was  wasted  before  a 
pot  of  tea  was  exactly  where  I  wanted 
it  to  be,  and  some  hot  stew  was  lo- 
cating itself  where  I  had  intended  an 
hour  before  the  blood  of  one  of  my 
remaining  dogs  should  have  gone. 

Rigged  out  in  the  warm  garments 
that  fishermen  wear,  I  started  with 
a  large  team  as  hard  as  I  could  race 
for  the  hospital,  for  I  had  learnt  that 
the  news  had  gone  over  that  !•  was 
I  54  J 


To  THe  MeMORy  of 
THRce  NoBLe  Docs. 

'^''^  Spy  ^>^^ 

'.VHOSE  LIVES  Vi'E RE  GIVEN 
FOR  MINE  ON  THE  ICE 

April  2V*  1905- 

^ILFReDCK€NFeLL, 


ME310RLUL  TARLKT  AT  ST.  AiSTHOSV  S 
HOSPITAL^  XKWrOCXDLAXD 


ADRIFT  ON  AN  ICE-PAN 
lost.  It  was  soon  painfully  impressed 
upon  me  that  I  could  not  much  enjoy 
the  ride,  for  I  had  to  be  hauled  Uke 
a  log  up  the  hills,  my  feet  being  frost- 
burnt  so  that  I  could  not  walk.  Had 
I  guessed  this  before  going  into  the 
house,  I  might  have  avoided  much 
trouble. 

It  is  time  to  bring  this  egotistic  nar- 
rative to  an  end.  * '  Jack  "  lies  curled 
up  by  my  feet  while  I  write  this  short 
account.  *  *  Brin  "  is  once  again  lead- 
ing and  lording  it  over  his  fellows. 
* '  Doc "  and  the  other  survivors  are 
not  forgotten,  now  that  we  have 
again  returned  to  the  less  romantic 
episodes  of  a  mission  hospital  hfe. 
There  stands  in  our  hallway  a  bronze 
tablet  to  the  memory  of  three  noble 
dogs.  Moody, Watch,  and  Spy, whose 
lives  were  given  for  mine  on  the  ice. 

[  55  J 


ADRIFT  ON  AN  ICE-PAN 
In  my  home  in  England  my  brother 
has  placed  a  duplicate  tablet,  and  has 
added  these  words ,  *  *  Not  one  of  them 
is  forgotten  before  your  Father  which 
is  in  heaven."  And  this  I  most  fully 
believe  to  be  true.  The  boy  whose  life 
I  was  intent  on  saving  was  brought 
to  the  hospital  a  day  or  two  later  in 
a  boat,  the  ice  having  cleared  off  the 
coast  not  to  return  for  that  season. 
He  was  operated  on  successfully,  and 
is  even  now  on  the  high  road  to  re- 
covery. We  all  love  life.  I  was  glad 
to  be  back  once  more  with  possibly 
a  new  lease  of  it  before  me.  I  had 
learned  on  the  pan  many  things,  but 
chiefly  that  the  one  cause  for  regret, 
when  we  look  back  on  a  life  which 
we  think  is  closed  forever,  will  be 
the  fact  that  we  have  wasted  its  op- 
portunities. As  I  went  to  sleep  that 

[56  1 


ADRIFT  ON  AN  ICE-PAN 
first  night  there  still  rang  in  my  ears 
the  same  verse  of  the  old  hymn 
which  had  been  my  companion  on 
the  ice,  "Thy  will,  not  mine,  O 
Lord." 


APPENDIX 


APPENDIX 

One  of  Dr.  GrenfelPs  volunteer  help- 
ers,  Miss  Luther  of  Providence,  R.  I., 
contributes  the  following  account  of 
the  rescue  as  recited  in  the  New- 
foundland vernacular  by  one  of  the 
rescuing  party. 

**  One  day,  about  a  week  after  Dr. 
Grenfell's  return,"  says  Miss  Luther, 
"two  men  came  in  from  Griquet, 
fifteen  miles  away.  They  had  walked 
all  that  distance,  though  the  trail 
was  heavy  with  soft  snow  and  they 
often  sank  to  their  waists  and  waded 
through  brooks  and  ponds .  '  We  j  ust 
felt  we  must  see  the  doctor  and  tell 
him  what 't  would  'a'  meant  to  us, 
if  he'd  been  lost.'  Perhaps  nothing 

[  6i    ] 


ADRIFT   ON  AN   ICE-PAN 

but  the  doctor's  own  tale  could  be 
more  graphic  than  what  was  told  by 
George  Andrews,  one  of  the  crew 
who  rescued  him." 

THE  rescuers'  STORY 

* '  It  was  wonderfu'  bad  weather  that 
Monday  mornin'.  Th'  doctor  was  to 
Lock's  Cove.  None  o'  we  thought  o' 
'is  startin'  out.  I  don't  think  th'  doc- 
tor hisself  thought  o'  goin'  at  first  an' 
then  'e  sent  th'  two  men  on  ahead  for 
to  meet  us  at  th'  tilt  an'  said  like  's  'e 
was  goin'  after  all. 

"'Twas  even'  when  us  knew  'e 
was  on  th'  ice.  George  Davis  seen  un 
first  'E  went  to  th'  cliff  to  look  for 
seal.  Itwas  after  sunset  an'  half  dark, 
but  'e  thought  'e  saw  somethin'  on 
th'  ice  an'  'e  ran  for  George  Read  an' 

'e  got  'is  spy-glass  an'  made  out  a 

I  62  ] 


ADRIFT   ON   AN    ICE-PAN 

man  an'  dogs  on  a  pan  an'  knowed  it 
war  th'  doctor. 

*  *  It  was  too  dark  fur  we  t'  go  t'  un, 
but  us  never  slept  at  all,  all  night. 
I  could  n'  sleep.  Us  watched  th'  wind 
an'  knew  if  it  did  n'  blow  too  hard  us 
could  get  un, — though  'e  was  then 
three  mile  off  a'ready.  So  us  waited 
for  th'  daylight.  No  one  said  who 
was  goin'  out  in  th'  boat.  Un  'ud 
say,  'Is  you  goin'  ? '  An'  another,  *Is 
you?'  I  didn'  say,  but  I  knowed 
what  I  'd  do. 

"As  soon  as  'twas  light  us  went  to 
th'  cliff  wi'  th'  spy-glass  to  see  if  us 
could  see  un,  but  thar  war  n't  no- 
thin'  in  sight.  Us  know  by  the  wind 
whar  t'  look  fur  un,  an'  us  launched 
th'  boat.  George  Read  an'  'is  two 
sons,  an'  George  Davis,  what  seen  un 
first,  an'  me,  was  th'  crew.  George 
[63  1 


ADRIFT   ON   AN   ICE-PAN 

Read  was  skipper-man  an'  Ih'  rest 
was  just  youngsters.  The  sun  was 
warm, — you  mind't  was  afinemorn- 
in',  —  an'  us  started  in  our  shirt  an' 
braces  fur  us  knowed  thar  'd  be  hard 
work  to  do.  I  knowed  thar  was  a 
chance  o'  not  comin'  back  at  all, 
but  it  didn'  make  no  difference.  I 
knowed  I  'd  as  good  a  chance  as  any, 
an*  'two' for  th'  doctor,  an'  *is  life's 
worth  many,  an'  somehow  I  could  n' 
let  a  man  go  out  like  dat  wi'out  try- 
in'  fur  un,  an'  I  think  us  all  felt  th' 
same. 

'  *  Us  'ad  a  good  strong  boat  an' 
four  oars,  an'  took  a  hot  kettle  o'  tea 
an'  food  for  a  week,  for  us  thought 
u  'd  'ave  t'  go  far  an'  p'rhaps  lose  th' 
boat  an'  'ave  t'  walk  ashore  un  th'  ice. 
I  din'  'ope  to  find  the  doctor  alive  an' 
kept  lookin'  for  a  sign  of  un  on  th' 
I  64  1 


ADRIFT   ON   AN   ICE-PAN 

pans.  'Twa*  no*  easy  gettin'  to  th' 
pans  wi'  a  big  sea  runnin'  I  Th'  big 
pans  'ud  sometimes  heave  together 
an*  near  crush  th'  boat,  an'  some- 
times us  'ad  t'  git  out  an'  haul  her 
over  th'  ice  t'  th'  water  again.  Then 
us  come  t'  th'  slob  ice  where  th'  pan 
'ad  ground  together,  an'  'twas  aU 
thick,  an'  that  was  worse  'n  any.  Us 
saw  th'  doctor  about  twenty  minutes 
afore  us  got  t'  un.  'E  was  wavin'  'is 
flag  an'  I  seen  Im.  'E  was  on  a  pan 
no  bigger 'n  this  flor,  an'  I  dunno 
what  ever  kep'  un  fro'  goin'  abroad, 
for 't  was  n't  ice,  't  was  packed  snow. 
Th'  pan  was  away  from  even  th'  slob, 
floatin'  by  hisself,  an'  th'  open  water 
all  roun',  an'  't  was  just  across  fro' 
Goose  Cove,  an'  outside  o'  that  there'd 
been  no  hope.  I  think  th'  way  th'  pan 
held  together  was  on  account  o'  th* 

I  65  1 


ADRIFT   ON  AN   ICE-PAN 

dogs'  bodies  meltin'  it  an*  H  froze 
hard  durin'  th'  night.  'E  was  level 
with  th'  water  an'  th'  sea  washin' 
over  us  all  th'  time. 

*'  When  us  got  near  un,  it  didn* 
seem  hke  'twas  th'  doctor.  'E looked 
so  old  an'  'is  face  such  a  queer  color. 
'E  was  very  solemn-like  when  us 
took  un  an'  th'  dogs  on  th'  boat.  No 
un  felt  hke  sayin'  much,  an'  'e  'ardly 
said  no  thin'  till  us  gave  un  some  tea 
an'  loaf  an'  then  'e  talked.  I  s'pose 
'e  was  sort  o'  faint-like.  Th'  first 
thing  'e  said  was,  how  wonderfu' 
sorry  'e  was  o'  gettin'  into  such  a 
mess  an'  givin'  we  th'  trouble  o' 
comin'  out  for  un.  Us  tol'  un  not  to 
think  o'  that ;  us  was  glad  to  do  it  for 
un,  an'  'e  'd  done  it  for  any  one  o'  we, 
many  times  over  if  'e  'ad  th'  chance ; 
• — an'  so  'e  would.  An'  then  'e  fretted 
[  66  J 


ADRIFT  ON  AN  ICE-PAN 

about  th'  b*y  *e  was  goin*  to  see,  it 
bein'  too  late  to  reach  un,  an'  us  tol' 
un  'is  life  was  worth  so  much  more  'n 
th'  b'y,  fur  'e  could  save  others  an* 
th'  b'y  could  n'.  But  'e  still  fretted. 

* '  'E  'ad  ripped  th'  dog-harnesses 
an'  stuffed  th'  oakum  in  th'  legs 
o'  'is  pants  to  keep  un  warm.  'E 
showed  it  to  we.  An'  'e  cut  off  th' 
tops  o'  'is  boots  to  keep  th'  draught 
from 'is  back.  'E  must 'a' worked 'ard 
all  night.  'E  said  'e  droled  off  once 
or  twice,  but  th'  night  seemed  won- 
derfu'  long. 

**  Us  took  un  off  th'  pan  at  about 
half-past  seven,  an'  'ad  a  'ard  fight 
gettin'  in,  th'  sea  still  runnin'  'igh. 
'E  said  'e  was  proud  to  see  us  comin' 
for  un,  and  so  'e  might,  for  it  grew 
wonderfu'  cold  in  th'  day  and  th'  sea 
so  'igh  the  pan  could  n'  'a'  lived  out- 
I  67  1 


ADRIFT   ON  AN   ICE-PAN 

side.  'E  would  n*  stop  when  us  got 
ashore,  but  must  go  right  on,  an' 
when  'e  'ad  dry  clothes  an'  was  a  bit 
warm,  us  sent  un  to  St.  Anthony 
with  a  team. 

'*Th'  next  night,  an'  for  nights 
after,  I  could  n'  sleep.  I  'd  keep  seein' 
that  man  standin'  on  th'  ice,  an'  I  'd 
be  sorter  half-awake  Hke,  sayin',  *  But 
not  th'  doctor.   Sure  not  th'  doctor.' " 

There  was  silence  for  a  few  mo- 
ments, and  George  Andrews  looked 
out  across  the  blue  harbor  to  the 
sea. 

**  'E  sent  us  watches  an'  spy-glass- 
es," said  he,  *'  an'  pictures  o'  hisself 
that  one  o'  you  took  o'  un,  made 
large  an'  in  a  frame.  George  Read 
an'  me  'ad  th'  watches  an'  th'  others 
'ad  th'  spy-glasses.  'Ere  's  th'  watch. 
It  'as  *  In  memory  o'  April  21st'  on 

[  68  ] 


ADRIFT   ON  AN   ICE-PAN 

it,  but  us  don't  need  th*  things  to 
make  we  remember  it,  tho'  we  're 
wonderful  glad  t'  'ave  'em  from  th' 
doctor." 


UC  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  UBRARY  FACILIP 


CENTRA 
'Jr.'     -sU> 


A     000  806  996 


